5. Bring up a bunch of OKC Barons — Oscar Klefbom, Tyler Pitlick, etc. — to give them a head start

6. Keep their first draft pick

7. Someone from the Oklahoma City Barons just needs to step up

An eighth year out of the playoffs means another stretch drive to nowhere for the Edmonton Oilers.

But while the points don’t matter, aside from determining draft-lottery positions, there are still some very important issues that need to be addressed and examined over the final six weeks of the season.

With 22 games and a trade deadline left on the schedule, here are a few things to look for that might suggest the organization is moving in the right direction.

1. An Exhausted Ben Scrivens

The Oilers need to play Scrivens until he’s out of gas. If there are 22 games left in the season, give him 18 starts. Let’s see what he’s got. By the time this season is over, the Oilers need to know for sure if he’s their guy going forward. None of this splitting the starts like they always did with Devan Dubnyk, who never played more than 47 games in a season for an Oilers management team that spent five years wondering what it had. The Oilers also need to let Scrivens, who’s a UFA this summer and just wants to be a starter somewhere, know that they are committed to him. If he’s for real, this is a huge piece of the puzzle going forward. If he’s not, at least they’ll know for sure.

2. A Better Fit For Sam Gagner

Gagner is a very good player who still has some unexplored upside, but he simply isn’t the right fit for Edmonton, and vice versa. No team this small up the middle on the top two lines is going to succeed in the Pacific Division. MacT needs to take him aside and say “it’s not you, it’s us,” and give Gagner a chance to succeed in a more conducive environment. It sucks for Gagner because he’s been here a long time and is committed to the city and the team, but Andrew Cogliano didn’t want to leave, either, and he’s loving it in Anaheim now. Gagner needs the same opportunity — to play on a big team with big wingers who’ll give him more room to flourish. And the Oilers need to stop humming and hawing over whether Gagner is the guy and start searching hard for the big second-line centre who’s vital to their progress.

3. A Bold Move

MacTavish has been busy this season, making decent deals for serviceable depth players with size (Mark Fraser and Matt Hendricks). But the only way he can strengthen the core of this team is by doing something big. If the Oilers were capable of drafting and developing a decent power forward they’d have done it at some point in the last 20 years. They need to trade their way into the playoffs and, in order to do that, they’ll have to give up something to get something.

The climate for a blockbuster will be better in the summer, given that playoff contenders aren’t willing to give up much in March, but the Oilers need to start working on this now — let it be known that they’re willing to move anyone.

This business of being afraid to trade one of the young core players has to stop. The Boston Bruins dealt Joe Thornton, Phil Kessel and Tyler Seguin in the last nine years and are perennial Stanley Cup contenders. Losing and waiting, losing and waiting, losing and waiting is no way to build a contending team. It’s time to do something.

4. Pacific Success

It does no good to say the Oilers play well against the East and against some of the smaller and more skilled teams in the West. They play in the Pacific Division and they have to learn to compete in the Pacific Division or they are never making the playoffs. End of story. So far they’ve been hapless (four wins in 18 games, with two of the wins coming against Calgary and another in which they gave up 59 shots). Management needs to do its part at the trade deadline and in the off-season to construct a team that is better able to compete with the big teams. And the players, current and future, need to step up their compete level. Starting now. Eight of Edmonton’s last 10 games are against Pacific division teams — the Oilers need to use those games to prove to everyone, including themselves, that they’re not weak pushovers anymore.

5. New Faces

The current faces aren’t really getting it done (hot streak before the Olympic break notwithstanding). Let’s call up the next generation of players and see what’s what. On-the-job training, even in a losing environment, is helpful. Bring up a bunch of OKC Barons after the trade deadline — Oscar Klefbom, Tyler Pitlick, etc — and play them at the expense of everything. Give them a head start on next year so next year isn’t another stumble out of the gate that sees the team out of contention by Christmas.

6. Somebody Step Up

It’s about time somebody came up from Oklahoma City and grabbed a job by the throat. In-betweeners like Anton Lander and Mark Arcobello aren’t the answer to this team’s problems. What they need now are big, strong second-, third- or fourth-round picks who show up in Edmonton and make everybody say ‘Wow, where did he come from?!’ Where is the Oilers Brandon Saad (43rd overall) or Ryan O’Reilly (33rd)? The strength and depth of this team is supposed to come from the draft. So far it hasn’t, despite having the best draft position in the NHL three of the last four years.

7. Keep The First Pick

Yes, it’ll be embarrassing as hell for the Oilers to be seated at the Losers Table again on the TSN Draft Lottery Show. Yes, there’s only one guy they really need out of the top five, hulking defenceman Aaron Ekblad. Yes, there’s every chance the 29th-place Oilers, only four points behind Florida and Calgary, could be drafting fourth or fifth after the lottery and Ekblad could be gone. Yes, defencemen who are physically stronger than everyone else in Junior aren’t always effective against grown men in the NHL. But there’s also a chance that Ekblad is for real and he’ll be available when Edmonton picks, and that’s a chance they have to take.